Zoning, parking complaints, street maintenance are topics in Campton Hills president race
The two candidates running for Campton Hills village president say they are committed to maintaining the semirural nature of the village and continuing to operate it without a property tax.
Incumbent Michael Tyrrell has served one term as president; he has also been a village trustee.
Challenger Barbara Wojnicki served on the Kane County Board for 24 years until losing in the Republican primary in 2022.
During an endorsement interview with the Daily Herald, Tyrrell and Wojnicki discussed issues facing the community.
One is the condition of village streets. Tyrrell said the village postponed repaving work last year due to an unexpected increase in the price of asphalt. It plans to seek bids earlier this year to see if it can get better pricing when fewer municipalities are seeking to have that work done, he said.
Wojnicki said the village should have used American Rescue Plan Act COVID-19 relief money to do the work last year.
Some residents have criticized the village for restricting parking in the 32-space village hall lot to employees and village-hall visitors.
Tyrrell said parking was restricted to ensure people working there and visitors don't have to park far away. Use of the lot has increased since the building was recently renovated and village offices were consolidated there, he said. Visitors have complained, and the lot has been full during the lunchtime rush at a nearby restaurant,
"An employee goes (away) to lunch, they lose a spot," he said. Tyrrell noted that there is a 100-space lot behind the restaurant.
"I see that a bit differently," Wojnicki said. "I would like to see an arrangement made" where restaurant patrons could park in the village lot except on nights village meetings are conducted, she said.
She said having police officers come to the restaurant to tell people to move their cars or issue tickets is not a business-friendly practice.
"They (the restaurant) are trying to run a business. It just hurts the business," Wojnicki said.
The two also discussed people's concerns about a recent overhaul of the village's zoning code, particularly the rules concerning keeping horses and chickens on residential properties.
Tyrrell said the revamp was overdue because when the village was founded in 2007 it adopted the Kane County zoning code. The county code had not been updated since the mid-1970s, he said.
He said residents' concerns were overblown on social media. He said that now people are permitted to keep backyard chickens on any size house lot, unlike under county code, which requires a minimum of 1 acre.
Wojnicki said people living in horse-oriented subdivisions "were just afraid they would lose the ability to keep their horses and their paddocks."
The new code allows keeping non-agricultural-use horses in residential districts on lots 1ΒΌ acre or larger.